A Bug’s Life

[Throughout this project, I will be handing over to the viewpoints of others for guest posts. For this one I’m delighted to welcome Agnes Forrester, who you can find on twitter as @cartridgepink. Thanks to Agnes for the screenshots as well!]

Nostalgia can be a strange motivator. I’m not a newcomer to the Traveller’s Tales/Psygnosis adventure A Bug’s Life: I played it at a friend’s house on Nintendo 64 some time soon after its release, then gave it another go a decade later on PC. Another decade on again, I couldn’t remember much more than that the Disney/Pixar movie it was based on was cute. So I approached A Bug’s Life with intrigue, since as a child I never finished it.

Well, now I’ve finished it. And I remembered why seven-year-old me never did.

I think it’s fair for a game adaptation of a film to assume that you’ve watched said film somewhat recently. Just in case, though, each chapter begins with a short clip for context before a title card informs you of that level’s win condition. Then, as Flik, it’s up to you to leave Ant Island, recruit bugs from the big city, and together drive the grasshoppers away across 15 levels.

Flik’s moveset is simple: throw berries to attack, ground pound, jump. According to the manual he can kick and slide down slopes as well, but the tutorial didn’t teach me those, so I never did – though I can’t think of a time where I would have needed them. Flik’s berries can be upgraded through each level, though unless you’re fighting tough enemies like grasshoppers you can usually get by with the weakest red ones. Keeping things simple is perfectly fine for a Disney game aimed at children.

What isn’t quite so friendly for younger players is the wild variations in level of difficulty and tone. The introduction of dandelion-based flying is coupled with an insta-death cutscene if you mess it up, with Flik screaming horrifically as he is eaten by a bird. It’s a severe consequence for making a mistake with a mechanic the game doesn’t explain very well, not to mention traumatic. Did I forget this part of the game—where I gave up when I was a child—or did I block it out because it was so awful? Finishing that level felt like a triumph, but I’m not sure if it was worth watching poor Flik become part of the food chain over and over to get there.

In some chapters the 100% completion requirements (50 pieces of grain, the letters to spell FLIK, and defeating every enemy with gold berries) are nigh on impossible. If you run out of lives and game over, as I did several times, you’re treated to a clip from the film of head grasshopper Hopper taunting you. I’m not in a hurry to hear “You think this is a game?” again any time soon.

The section set in Bug City is where its separate gimmicks feel most cohesive. Grain collecting becomes purposeful to unlock gates, while the height puzzles are more satisfying as the city’s colourful vista is revealed. Accompanied by fast-paced jazz, these levels were engaging and fun to play. These chapters also feature most of the other characters from the film, and though the PS1 graphics don’t quite match up to their Pixar counterparts, they’re still expressive, funny and endearing. If they’d been featured more heavily, the goodwill I had left over from the film may have rubbed off on the game a bit more.

Another pleasant surprise as I played through was the soundtrack. Every track is good. Some tracks are really good. From the warmth in “Welcome to Ant Island” to the trepidation of “Dandelion Flight” or urgent, dramatic chanting in “They Call Him Thumper”, there’s tremendous range across its 21 pieces. Many are carried by wind instruments like flute, piccolo and pan pipes, each with a lightness perfectly suited to Flik’s tiny, yet vast adventure.

Unfortunately A Bug’s Life is not a rhythm game, so an excellent soundtrack can only take it so far. Instead, it’s a collectathon adventure with issues which make it harder to both collect and adventure. The camera isn’t anywhere near as responsive as it needs to be, while the draw distance is painfully short – so even if you’re lucky enough to have the camera facing where you want, chances are you’re still no wiser as to where you should be headed.

There were definitely things to like about A Bug’s Life. Though minimal, the fully-voiced dialogue was well performed and carried the same humour as the film, and at times I genuinely laughed. It also reconnected me with one aspect of playing platformers I’d forgotten: churning the tutorial level over and over again to earn extra lives.

But for a game tied to a Disney kids film, it’s far too difficult and expects too much of its players. When I finally defeated Hopper by luring him towards a bird, I couldn’t enjoy my victory, his dying screams only reminding me of the many (many, many) times Flik suffered the same fate. This is one game where nostalgia can remain just that, fond memories which were fuzzy for a reason. While it’s hardly the toughest gaming experience I’ve had, it’s still true: beating A Bug’s Life took me more than 20 years.

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Top of the charts for week ending 20 February 1999:

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